Rep. Al Green’s effort to impeach Trump fails

Rep. Al Green’s articles of impeachment against President Trump failed Thursday as Republicans and some Democrats voted to table the motion.

Mr. Green, Texas Democrat, filed the articles of impeachment on Wednesday as privileged, meaning the House had to bring them up to be voted on within two legislative days.

The vote to table the motion passed 237 to 140, with 23 Democrats joining Republicans to essentially kill the proposal.

Another 47 Democrats, including the party’s leadership, voted present.

“Impeachment is a sacred constitutional vehicle … [that] traditionally requires a comprehensive investigative process, the collection and review of thousands of documents, an exacting scrutiny of the facts, the examination of dozens of key witnesses, Congressional hearings” and more, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, Whip Katherine Clark of Massachusetts and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar of California said in a joint statement.

“None of that serious work has been done, with the Republican majority focused solely on rubber-stamping Donald Trump’s extreme agenda,” they wrote, explaining why they would be voting present.

Mr. Green has accused Mr. Trump of abusing his presidential power “by threatening Democratic lawmakers in Congress with execution,” referring to his Truth Social posts that slammed as traitors the six Democratic lawmakers who posted a video urging members of the military to refuse any illegal orders.

“President Trump is an abuser of presidential power who, if left in office, will continue to promote violence, engender invidious hate, undermine our democracy, and dissolve our Republic,” Mr. Green said in a statement.

He also accused the president of abusing his power by threatening federal judges.

“President Trump has fostered a political climate in which lawmakers and judges face threats of political violence and physical assault; and in this climate has made threats and vituperative comments against federal judges, putting at risk their safety and well-being, and undermining the independence of our judiciary,” the resolution says.

He made his case earlier Thursday, while acknowledging that lawmakers may not be up for the impeachment but analogized himself to the Rev. Martin Luther King in Selma, Alabama.

“If ever there was a person who ought to be impeached, it’s Donald John Trump,” he said on the House floor. “Now, there are many people that don’t want to see this happen; they don’t want to vote for impeachment. Well, there were people who didn’t want to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge, but they marched on. I shall march on.”

Mr. Green previously had filed multiple articles of impeachment against Mr. Trump and disrupted Mr. Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress earlier this year, when he had been in office just a couple of weeks.

In May, he said the president was a “threat to democracy,” but a vote wasn’t taken on the measure.

Another effort in June over Mr. Trump’s decision to bomb Iran’s nuclear sites was killed in the House by Republicans and Democrats.

He also filed multiple, separate impeachment articles against Mr. Trump during the president’s first term.

The president was impeached twice by Democrats during his first term, but the Senate acquitted him both times.

Other members of the Trump administration have also been threatened with impeachment this year. Rep. Shri Thanedar, Michigan Democrat, introduced articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean, accusing him of murder, conspiracy to murder, and reckless and unlawful mishandling of classified information.

Rep. Haley Stevens, Michigan Democrat, has filed articles of impeachment against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for turning “his back on science, on public health, and on the American people – spreading conspiracies and lies, driving up costs, and putting lives at risk.”